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Tuesday, May 19, 2015

I am happy to report that after multiple experiments I was finally able to find a way to reduce the waiting step in my Openwork Pendants and Openwork Bracelets tutorials from up
to a few days to a couple of hours. The Openwork Pendants tutorial now also has a separate troubleshooting section with explanations about possible errors and how to avoid or correct them.

If you purchased any of these tutorials through my website polymertutorials.com, please visit your account to download the new version. All tutorials purchased through my web site remain in your account, and any updates appear in your files automatically.

If you purchased any of these tutorials through my shop on etsy (etsy.com/shop/PolymerClayTutorials), please expect to see an email from me with the new file attached. If you do not receive an email within the next two days, please contact me.

I demonstrated the new version of the Openwork Pendants technique at Philadelphia Polymer Clay Guild this Sunday. The pendant I showed during this demo was ready in less than an hour. Yay!

In my 2-day class I will show how to build my wonder-stamps and how to use them with polymer clay.

For years, I’ve been searching for a way to turn my own designs into
stamps. Sculpting or carving them out of polymer clay was an obvious
first choice, but the stamps turned out too crude and small details were
impossible to recreate.

Then, I tried ordering custom rubber stamps
online. The cost was a bit too high for me and the turn-around time was
way too long. As for the stamps, they were better than my first ones,
but still not detailed enough. In my search for the perfect stamp, I
even considered 3D-printing at some point (which did not work out
either).

Finally, one day, I came up with an idea that produced stamps with
thin, tall and strong walls. These could be created on my own time, and
with no cost at all. With these, I was ready to conquer many different
techniques. My own faux cloisonné – check! Back-filling – check! Sutton
slice – have never been easier! Mokume-gane – any design is possible!
But, making the stamps themselves was too cumbersome to explain to
somebody else.

It took me another year to put the polishing touches on this technique. Finally, I am ready to present it!